Umbra
by Angelus-alvus
Summary: How far would you go to protect those you care about? However pride can blind anyone and your sacrifice might bring others pain instead of salvation.
1. Arrival

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own My Little Pony

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><p>It has been another fruitless day for the CMC. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had tried to see if being librarians would be their special talent. They thought they had already tried that a year ago, but all they did was read a bunch of complicated books. In the end they didn't know what being a librarian was really about, so they asked Twilight Sparkle for some help.<p>

Twilight was eager to help then out, of course. But it wasn't exactly what they had expected. Scootaloo was fighting against dozing off after 30 minutes of Twilight's rant about organization. Sweetie Belle was groaning trying to think of a polite way to leave the Tree and Apple Bloom just left her mind drift somewhere else. The three fillies thought it would be just about reading fantasy books, but they were wrong.

Spike had to cover his mouth to not laugh as Twilight didn't notice how bored the fillies were. The lavender pony wasn't looking at them exactly to begin with. She was using her magic to pick a few books to help to illustrate how everything should be organized.

She went on and on about how to organize each shelf every month, making sure every shelf is organized by book genre, alphabetical order and make sure the book genre picked up the most by the ponies are on the lower shelves to make it easier for them to locate.

Spike was already used to this routine of re-shelving the books, but he found it quite unnecessary. He thought that it just made it harder for them to find something in their time of need. But Twilight insists on creating the perfect organization for her books, but it always backfires and she seems to not notice that. Spike still thought that it would be more useful to use the floor as one big shelf.

An hour after Twilight started her rant, Apple Bloom suddenly said: "Hey, Twilight…this uh…is very fascinating and all, but I think it's getting late…"

Twilight then turned to the clock at her wall and it showed it was 4 p.m. "It's not that late." She said oblivious to the fillies' true intention of fleeing from there.

The CMC felt nervous at that moment. They didn't want to hurt Twilight's feelings and it was then when Spike decided to intervene at their behalf: "I think they mean that it's getting late for them to do all the homework Cheerilee gave them, no?"

"Yeah! That's it." Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

Twilight smiled completely believing in the lie and said: "Oh. Alright then. Be sure to work hard on it."

"Okay. Thanks, twilight for the…lecture." Scootaloo said holding back a yawn.

The three fillies then started trotting their way out of the library and Apple Bloom whispered to Spike when she passed by him: "Thanks, Spike. We own you one."

The baby dragon just chuckled and whispered back: "Don't worry about that."

"Bye, my little ponies" Twilight said.

Spike shivered and then said looking at her: "Please don't say that. It's creepy."

The lavender pony just looked at her assistant confused.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders left the library said "Bye, Twilight" in unison and then left the library., Sweetie Belle said: "Sorry, but my parents told me they would bring family game night to Rarity's home and they said they wanted to start it in half hour."

Scootaloo also said she needed to go back home soon that day, but Apple Bloom had some time to spare until dinner. The three friends said their byes and each went off to a different direction.

The earth pony filly had gone home to pick her hula hoop to play with it for a while. She remembered very well that it wasn't her special talent, but it was still pretty fun for her.

She wasn't all that disappointed with her latest attempt to gain a cutie mark. She found that being a librarian was way too boring and complicated, but she thought that the last part was mostly because Twilight tried to overcomplicate it.

Apple Bloom walked near the Everfree Forest while loopty-hooping. She thought that maybe Zecora had some knew advice for her, but then she halted before going inside of it.

The zebra didn't like when the filly had used some of her potions on herself before. She now knew that what she did was dangerous and sure wasn't going to try do it again. Thankfully, Zecora had forgiven her for that, but she wasn't sure anymore if she should try bring the cutie mark issue up with her anymore.

The filly didn't want to thing Apple Bloom had second intentions anymore. '_But that doesn't mean I can't just visit her anymore, right_?'

But then the hula hoop then escaped from her tail and rolled straight into the forest. Apple Bloom gasped and ran towards the forest in search of it

'_Where is that thing?_' The filly thought as she searched through the forest. She couldn't believe that she had lost it so easily.

Suddenly, she heard something and the hula hoop came rolling into her direction falling a few inches from her.

She turned into the direction where the toy came from and asked: "Zecora? Is that you?"

But there was no answer.

"Hello? Is somepony there?" she inquired once more, but the result was the same.

The filly swallowed dry and looked everywhere and thought it was very strange. She then picked her hula hoop and trotted outside of the Everfree Forest trying to dismiss it as that her toy simply was rolling around up until that point.

Applebloom heard something rustling the leaves around her and she tried to discover what it was. The sound was getting louder and nearer from her.

She wanted to escape. Run back to her home, but her legs were failing her. They were shaking in fear. Then, a brown small bunny popped out from a bush near her, which made her scream in fear.

The bunny used its little hands to cover its ears.

When Applebloom finally realized what she was looking at she calmed down while trying to regain her breath. The bunny just stared at her confused of why she reacted this way. For the small animal nopony had ever reacted this way after seeing a rabbit before.

Applebloom smiled sleeplessly and said: "I-I'm sorry."

She then quickly picked it up and went straight out of the forest and decided to leave the Visit to Zecora's place another day.

The Cutie Mark Crusader was unaware that a another pony whose body was covered by a black cloak and head by a hood of the same color watched the young filly run from behind some thick bushes.

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><p>I hope you enjoyed. please review.<p> 


	2. Lurking From the Shadows

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own My Little Pony

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><p>On the next day, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo weren't paying much attention at Cheerilee's math class. They were talking among themselves instead.<p>

"What should we do after class?" Scootaloo asked while whispering to her friends.

"Maybe we can go to the hospital to see if we can doctors." Sweetie Belle suggested.

Apple Bloom frowned a bit and said: "Sorry. I promised my sister I would be back to help her to get some tools. My brother is going to fix our barn and he can't leave to go buy the tools. So my sister asked me to do it. Besides, I don't think they would let us in to walk around unless we were sick or something."

"Can we go with you, then? At least it won't be so boring if we are together." Scootaloo asked.

"Yeah, it might be fun in the end. And we can go play afterwards…" Sweetie Belle whispered right before they were interrupted

"Ahem! I hope what you fillies are discussing is something related to the class." Cheerilee said while looking at the trio sternly.

"Sorry…" the three fillies said in unison.

A few giggles could be heard from Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, but the teacher made sure to keep the class quiet and resume her lessons.

"Now, where was I…" Cheerilee said as she continued to explain the basics of trigonometry to her class.

A few hours later, the classes were over and all fillies and foals left the school. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were glad the lessons were over for the day and especially because there was no homework.

The three fillies got everything Applejack asked, which were nails, screws and the almighty duct tape. Apple Bloom carried them all inside of a plastic bags tied on each other over her own back like a saddle.

They chatted for a while as they trotted inside of Sweet Apple Acres. But they suddenly stopped as the trees' leaves rustled making a few apples fall on the ground.

Apple Bloom looked up and found it weird: "It's not even windy…"

But then the rustiling suddenly halted when they heard a pony shouting from behind them.

"Get away from those fillies!"

The Cutie Mark Crusaders then looked behind them to see a strange stallion with a black cloak and hood running towards them.

When he got near them, he seemed to look desperately everywhere yelling for something to leave them alone.

The three fillies slowly backed away from him. "Who are you, mister? What is going on?" Sweetie Belle asked trying to be polite, but having to admit she was a bit scared. By this strange stallion's actions.

'_I need to find it when I'm alone. I can't risk fighting it with others involved…_' the stallion thought ignoring the question the filly asked him.

However, he suddenlysuddenly lost his own balance and he fell on his side. He felt weak and dizzy. 'Not now…Please not now…' he thought as he lost consciousness.

When he fell down, the Cutie Mark Crusaders could see that the stallion had a black mane, caramel eyes and a somewhat gray fur. Also, they noticed that this strange pony was an unicorn, but he had only the base of his horn. The rest of it was missing.

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><p>At the library, twilight was at a desk looking at a few books with some empty flasks near.<p>

Spike was finishing baking some cookies for them. He thought they would be a nice afternoon snack plus it would make Twilight remove her face from the books and talk about something else.

Once the cookies were done he carefully picked them and placed on a place, quickly picking one and 'slyly' putting one inside of his mouth.

"Don't eat too much, or you'll spoil your dinner." Twilight said without moving her gaze from the book.

The dragon finished swallowing it and asked: "how did you know I was eating one?"

Twilight turned to him and smirked: "I could smell the cookies…and I know you all too well to know you would eat some as soon as they were done. It impresses me how you can eat them while they are still hot."

Spike shrugged and said: "What can I say? Freshly baked cookies are the best. You should try some."

Twilight smiled and said: "I would rather wait for them to cool down a bit."

Her assistant saw this as an opportunity and said: 'You know, ever since we came back from the Cristal Empire you have been reading an awful lot. We should call Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow dash and Fluttershy and go out tonight. It's not healthy for you to do nothing but study in your free time."

As soon as he was done talking he picked another cookie from the plate and started munching it.

Twilight frowned a little bit and said: "I do get out to have fun, Spike. Did you forget the party Pinkie threw a couple of days ago? We had a lot of fun. But we have a responsibility to further our knowledge and be prepared for anything."

It was Spike's turn to frown as he said: "It wasn't a couple of days ago. The party you mentioned was two weeks ago! Really, Twi, you should get out more. You practically need to be dragged of this library to have some fun."

Twilight then pointed to the books and said with a stern look: "I have fun studying, Spike, you know that."

The baby dragon groaned and resisted the urge to face palm himself as he said: "I meant social interaction kind of fun, Twilight…" when the purple unicorn opened her mouth to protest, Spike quickly complemented "People who come here to get books don't count."

Twilight then closed her mouth and then sighed. "She smiled softly. She knew that Spike had only her best interest at heart and she was thankful for it. "How about this? As soon as I finish this experiment, we can organize a picnic tonight and we all can go stargaze." She conceded.

The little dragon smiled in victory and agreed with her suggestion. He then asked: "Is there anything you need me to get you?" he then pointed to the empty flasks. It didn't take much thought to know that Twilight wanted to brew something and sooner she got the ingredients sooner she would finish whatever potion she wants to make.

Twilight then used her magic to pick a scroll and gave it to spike along with a basket and a scissor. The dragon picked everything and then opened the scroll to see a bunch of drawing of plants with their names on the side.

"I'm glad you asked, Spike, I was going to ask you if you could pick up a few herbs for me? They're at the Everfree Forest, but don't worry about going to deep. You'll find most of them without much difficulty. But if anything happens come straight home, okay?" Twilight asked her assistant

"Sure. No problem, Twi. I'll be back soon." Spike said as he placed the scroll inside of the basket and then he left his home.

Later, the small purple and green dragon walked around the Everfree Forest holding his basket while he picked up some herbs from Twilight's list.

The forest had always crept the baby dragon a little and he knew all too well he shouldn't go deep into it alone ever since the incident with the timber wolves.

The boy looked at the list to compare the herbs with the drawings to make sure he didn't commit a mistake. 'I'm her number one assistant after all.' He thought as he smiled.

After half an hour wandering he collected all buy one of the plants from the list. He had to go a bit further into the forest because the last herb was something called 'Rock Crawler' because it was a grey looking plant that resembled vines and they always grew over big rocks and its roots carved deep into the rocks draining its minerals.

When Spike finally found it he sighed in relief because his task was almost complete. He found a rock entangled by the grey vines and proceeded to put down the basket full of herbs and pick the scissors.

The moment the dragon started to cut the vines, he felt something tightening the grip around his feet and pulling him to the top of a nearby tree.

The boy could only yell as he was violently dragged through several branch trees by what seemed to be some kind of…black rope.

"STOP! LET ME GO!" Spike yelled as he was dragged through a dense area of tree. He continuously hit the branches hard and it was hurting him quite a bit.

Suddenly the 'rope' untied itself and the baby dragon fell on the ground. Spike was thankful his body was naturally sturdy thanks to his thick scales, but his relief was short lived.

Four black tentacles descent from the trees and each one tied one of his limbs and dragged him once more to the top of the trees.

Spike was about to breath his fire on the tentacles when a fifth one wrapped around his mouth, gagging him. He continuously struggled to free himself, but the tentacles tightened their grip so much it made the dragon give a muffled scream of pain.

The boy could only tremble as he looked at the source of the tentacles. It was nothing but a big mass of a black mist and the dragon felt a cold shiver through his spine as he heard the mist chuckling.

End of chapter 2

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><p>I hope you enjoyed. please review.<p> 


	3. Cruel Shadows

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own My Little Pony

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><p>Spike struggled trying to pull his arms without success. The dragon tried to scream for help, but the tentacle only allowed him to make muffled noises.<p>

The dragon looked at the black mist without understanding what it wanted from him. He then felt the tentacles holding him getting a bit looser, but the moment he tried to seize the chance to escape the grip, the black tentacles tightened the grip once again and the one holding Spike's right arm yanked it behind him dislocating the shoulder.

Spike's eyes went wide as he screamed at the top of his lungs as he felt the pain. Not content with the damage caused the dark vine entangled the drake's wounded arm and used its strength to bend it and break the arm's bones.

Between his muffled screams, the baby dragon could hear the mist chuckling._ 'It is…having fun?'_ he thought frightened. He had never seen some…thing that could have fun doing that to somepony or somedragon else. He doubted even Discord would go this far for a joke.

But he wasn't even allowed to think. The being trapping him repeated the same process with his other arm. Spike could feel his tears flowing for his emerald eyes as the pain he felt intensified.

He was too scared. He wanted to be with Twilight. They were supposed to have a calm afternoon and have some fun later that day. He wanted to see the pony he considered his sister again one more time.

However, the drake's thought were snapped back to the pain when the tentacles holding his legs wrapped them as a whole. He started to shake a lot and his breathing intensified. He knew what the thing in front of him was about to do.

He gave another scream asking it to stop, but again only nonsensical sound could be heard.

Another laugh.

The trembled in both fear and rising anger. Spike felt that somehow the thing holding him captive could understand what he was yelling and merely made fun of him.

The being used the tentacle on Spike's right leg to twist it. Spike was horrified with both the pain and the sound of his bones breaking. He threw his head backwards and let out another scream.

Without giving the dragon any rest, the entity proceeded to break Spike's other leg. Tears flowed from Spike's eyes, who was now sobbing in agony. He didn't have the strength to scream anymore.

The drake though if he did anything to deserve this. He was sure that the thing in front of him was going to kill him. 'Would twilight and the others cry?' he thought with a heartache.

He didn't want to die. He had some many plans for he future. Finally confessing to Rarity, have fun with his friends, growing up, having a family on his own, among other things.

Spike then tensed when another tentacle came from the black mist. This one was rigid and looked sharp like a sword. His breathing rhythm intensified as it approached his right eye.

'Twi….I'm so sorry…' he thought as he couldn't even bring himself to close his eyes for the incoming attack.

But the blow never happened.

The mist and Spike flinched as they heard a familiar voice calling "SPIIIIIIIIKE? ARE YOU THERE?"

The dragon manage to turn his head to see the source of the voice from behind the tree's leaves.

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><p>Earlier, after twenty minutes Spike had left, while Twilight read her books she realized that she forgot to add a couple of herbs in the list she had given to her assistant.<p>

She frowned because she had forgotten some important ingredients and she couldn't delay her experiment for much longer since she needed all her ingredients fresh '_Plus, Spike must have gotten there by now. I can't simply tell him to turn around and go back to the Everfree Forest again just to get some plants. Ugh! How could I be so careless.'_

She then had an idea. She would go meet Spike there and tell him about the missing ingredients and after they were done they could walk home together. She then decided to finish her book later and left her home.

Twilight trotted calmly towards the Everfree Forest hoping to find her assistant soon. When she got inside of the forest, she started to call his name, but after 20 minutes searching she couldn't find him.

"I told him not to go deep into the forest!" she mumbled to herself before calling for her assistant louder as she trotted faster through the forest.

A few minutes later, she came across a basket full of herbs on the ground with the scissor she gave spike not far from it.

"Spike? You're scaring me." She called once again looking around getting even more worried. _'I shouldn't have sent him here alone…_' she cursed herself as resumed her search.

The continued to call his name as she trotted faster stopping every now and then to see if she could find him.

She was unaware about what was happening just above her.

Spike's eyes went wide when he Saw Twilight looking for him. He tried t scream her name, but it was futile.

However, Spike's attention turned to the black mist as more tentacles came out of it.

For the dragon it was clear what this monster wanted: '_No! I can't let it hurt her too!'_ He thought as he tried to struggle again, which the mere movement made him almost scream in pain given the fact that his limbs were severely damaged.

The being ignore the dragon's attempts to break free since he was too weak and wounded to even be considered an annoyance.

Spike's fear grew bigger as the tentacles got ready got ready to strike Twilight. '_What can I do? What can I do?_' the drake thought desperately.

He then came up with something and hoped it would work. He inhaled as much as he could through his nose and tried to make fire to leave through it. Spike only breathed fire through his nose when he sneezed. He had never tried to do it on purpose before.

The green fire took the being by surprise who emitted a high pitched screech sound as it was set on fire. The being loosened its grip on Spike who manage to get his mouth free enough for him to shout: "TWI GET AWAY FROM HERE!"

Twilight was both surprised and shocked to hear her friend's voice coming from the top of the trees which were now burning. She used her magic to clear the path and put the fire out. Her eyes went wide when she saw something holding Spike and when she used her magic to take a hold on her assistant to bring him safely to her, the mist used its strength to forcefully tackly the young drake against the nearby tree's trunk. The impact hit right on his head and there was a crack on the tree.

Spike's couldn't even scream. His mouth was open wide, but no sound came from it. He soon lost consciousness as twilight used all her strength to take a hold of Spike and free him from what was holding him.

Once she levitated her friend near her she looked to the top of the trees in both fear and anger to try find who hurt her little brother, but she found nothing. Whatever held Spike captive was now gone.

She then paid full attention at the baby dragon floating in forn of her. His head was bleeding from the impact on the tree and his limbs were in a horrible state. Her expression showed horror and she feared for his life.

"Please hang on, Spike" she begged him as she teleported themselves to the Ponyville hospital.

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><p>The cloaked pony blinked a few times before he regained his consciousness. He then realized he was over a bed inside of an unfamiliar house. It took him a while to realize he had passed out.<p>

He got up and was about to leave when he run straight to Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Big Macintosh. Apple Bloom carried a plate with a glass of water with a straw on it with her mouth ,while her brother carried some apples in basked with his.

"Are leaving? You just woke up." Sweetie Belle asked.

"I'm sorry, but I can't stay here." Said the pony, but his stomach growled as he saw the apples.

Big mac blocked his path and placed the basket on the ground and said: "Nope. You are stayin'. You gave the fillies quite the scare. I carried you here and I heard your stomach growling. By your look, you must be starved. Eat something. You are too weak to walk around."

Apple Bloom placed he plate with the glass of water over a table near the bed and said: "Yeah. You were so hungry you were yelling at the trees."

Her brother then looked at her then at the stallion with a bit of confusion. "You were yelling at the trees[1]?"

"No! I mean…" he didn't even know what to say. How could he even tell them what he was following.

His stomach growled again and he couldn't help but to stare at the apples. They looked delicious to him and he had to make sure if it was okay for him to eat them: "May I?"

Big Mac nodded and said: "Yep."

The cloaked Stallion picked a apple with his mouth and munched it. He was right. The apple was succulent and it was one of the best apples he had ad in a long time…

The strange stallion then realized that his face wasn't covered by his hood and what remained from his horn gave a grey aura and he lifted it to cover his face.

The other four ponies imagined he did it because he was embarrassed because of his horn. And they were almost correct given the circumstance.

"You don't have to hide your face with us. It's okay, really." Scootaloo quickly assured him.

"Sorry…" the stallion said a bit embarrassed. I haven't had contact with other ponies in a while, so I fear the reaction I might have."

"You are among friends! Mah sister would like to meet you too, but she isn't here. She is helping another friend of ours, Fluttershy with some animals." Apple Bloom said with a smile.

"Oh." That was all the stallion could say before he picked another apple.

"That's right. We haven't introduced ourselves. My name is Scootaloo. These are Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and her brother, Big Macintosh." She said using her right hoof to point at each one as she presented them. What is your name?" she finished saying.

The stallion almost chocked at his apple and he was hesitant for a while. He then said: "My name…is Cielo Gris[2]"

End of chapter 3

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><p>I hope you enjoyed. Please review.<p>

More author notes:

[1]I'm saying this in advance. I have no idea of how to write the Apple family accent.

[1]It means "Grey Sky from Spanish.


	4. Hospital part 1

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own My Little Pony

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><p>Twilight trotted as fast as she could while levitating the unconscious dragon. She teleported every now and then to cover the distance faster, but she was afraid that her spell might make Spike's condition worse given the fact that he always felt a bit sick whenever she teleported him.<p>

She was even more distressed when she gave a look at the wounds her friend, and adoptive brother, had. 'What could have possibly done that?' she thought worried.

"Please, Spike, hang in there. We are almost at the hospital." She spoke to him as she dashed through the front door.

At the reception, the purple unicorn quickly said: "Please, you have to help me. It's an emergency. My friend is very hurt. Please."

A female pegasus with blue mane at the reception saw the little dragon floating in pink energy and she couldn't help but to cringe at the sight of the broken limbs. She had seem fractures like this before, but it didn't make any easier for get used to.

She quickly gave Twilight a formulary to fill and then called the doctors. A couple of earth ponies and an unicorn came with a litter for the patient and twilight carefully dropped her assistant there.

"Please help him. I don't know what happened. He was attacked by some creature at the Everfree Forest."

"We'll do our best, ma'am." replied a unicorn with yellow fur and brown mane wearing a white coat.

Then the Earth ponies secured Spike on the litter and pushed it towards the emergency room.

Twilight had to gather her strength to deal with the paperwork while she repeatedly told herself Spike would be okay.

After she was done with the paperwork, she wanted to see Spike, but she knew that the doctors wouldn't allow it, plus she could get in the way of his treatment.

She then decided to go find her friends and tell them what happened to Spike.

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><p>"So, mister Cielo, what brings you to Ponyville?" Sweetie Belle asked.<p>

The stallion looked nervous after this question. He stared at the floor while looking troubled for a few minutes without realizing he spent all this time without replying.

"Mister Cielo?" Sweetie Belle inquired again confused by the pony's silence.

"Oh! Sorry" He quickly said as he raised his gaze. "I just was looking for a…thing."

"Thing? What thing?" Scootaloo asked.

"It's unimportant, really." He tried to quickly end this topic of conversation.

"It didn't sound unimportant by the way you were yelling. Was this thing there with us? Is it dangerous? Should we tell Twilight and the others? They might help you, you know." Scootaloo begun to rant.

"Listen, filly, this is my problem and I'll solve it even if it gets me killed. Besides, I doubt anyone in this town would be able to help me, anyway." He said with an angry look.

Big Mac didn't like this pony's tone since it made the three fillies look like they've done something wrong. "If you think you can handle the problem alone, why did you pass out in our farm?"

Cielo felt a bit ashamed to be reminded of that "I traveled for a long time with barely no rest or food for the matter. My mission is too important for me to rely on anypony else. Besides, it is my problem to solve. This is nopony else's issue. This…thing…is simply too dangerous. I thought I had tracked it here, but now it has gone somewhere else."

'_Didn't he just say it was unimportant?_ _What if Apple Bloom and her friends had been hurt?' _Big Mac thought frowning a little wanting to press that pony a little more.

"That's why you should talk to mah sister and her friends." Apple Bloom interfered before her brother could say anything.

The cloaked stallion then asked raising an eyebrow: "Who are they and how could they help me? I doubt anypony, but me could handle this situation."

"They're the Elements of Harmony!" Apple Bloom said with a smile not eally noticing the colt's arrogance in his voice. "There is nothing they can't beat."

The other two fillies kept agreeing with other and starting to sidetrack about the feats of the six Elements of Harmony. Only Big Mac noticed the other stallion's face turn pale as the fillies talked about how awesome Twilight and the others were.

'_So that's why it came all the way here. It all makes sense now…But I can't tell them…No…I must solve this by myself…'_ Cielo Gris started to ramble in his own mind.

The awkward silence that followed it was only broken by Apple Bloom when she asked something that was on everypony's mind there: "So, uh…What happened to your horn?"

The other three ponies, while curious themselves, thought that it was rather rude to ask such a thing in a blatantly way.

"Apple Bloom..." Big Mac looked at his sister sternly.

Noticing that, the filly looked down and quickly said: "Sorry, mister, I was just curious."

Cielo Gris just sighed and said: "It's okay. I...I don't talk about how I lost most of my horn. It's a rather shameful story... At least I can do some magic. It's much weaker, but it can still be used."

After another awkward silence, Cielo Gris told them: "I'm really sorry, but I can't stay. I appreciate what you did for me, but I'm okay now." He then turned to Big Mac and gave him a quick bow as he said: "Thank you for the food. I'm feeling much better now."

"But…" Apple Bloom tried to talk only to receive a quick, yet polite, 'thank you' from the stallion, who did the same to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Then, the cloaked stallion used his magic to hold Big Mac on the place while he went past the ponies and then left the house.

The three fillies gasped as the red stallion tried to bulge without success until the magic faded away. He thought of chasing after Cielo, but he couldn't leave the younger ponies alone after what he had just heard.

"What was that all about?" Inquired Sweetie Belle confused.

"I dunno, but I think we should tell twilight and the others about this pony. He was after a 'thing', whatever it is, so it must be serious." Scootaloo said flapping her wings a little.

"You fillies better stay here. I don't know what he was after, but it is better safe than sorry. Once Applejack arrives, I can walk Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo home." The red stallion said a bit worried.

From his life experience in Ponyville, things could go really bad if there is some strange creature lurking. Besides, that strange colt said the thing he was hunting was dangerous and had come to his farm. He couldn't risk the safety of his sister and her friends.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at each other getting worried as well. They wanted to go warn Twilight and the others, but they decided that Big Mac's decision was probably for the best.

Big Mac told Apple Boom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to play inside their house while he was going to inform Granny Smith about their visitor. But before leaving he stressed again for them not to leave the house.

The three fillies agreed, but they didn't have the mood to play around, instead they kept trying to guess what kind of creature Cielo Gris was after.

It didn't take long until AppleJack came through the front door with a worried expression in her face.

Once she found her sister and her friends, she was very relieved. She had heard that Apple Bloom went to the Eeverfree Forest on the previous day to visit Zecora and she feared that she might have gone again.

"Sis, what's wrong?" Apple Bloom asked not liking her sister's expression.

Her words snapped AppleJack from her thoughts and the older pony told them: "It is Spike. He was attacked by some monster in the Everfree Forest."

End of chapter 4

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><p>I hope you enjoyed. Please review.<p> 


	5. Hospital part 2

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own My Little Pony

3)Thanks KelseyAlicia and Asher Tye for your reviews.

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><p>The news about Spike's incident soon reached all his friends, who quickly went to the hospital to check on him.<p>

Twilight smiled weakly when she saw her friends, including the Cutie Mark Crusaders there.

"How is Spike doing? Will he be okay" Fluttershy asked.

"The doctors are still treating him. I hope I didn't get here too late." Twilight explained looking at the floor.

"Don't worry, Twilight, I bet Spike will be as good as before soon. I'll prepare something special for him when he wakes up." Pinkie Pie tried to cheer her friend up.

Twilight thanked her friend, but her attention turned to rarity who asked what was in everypony's mind there: "Twilight, how did this happen? You told us Spike got seriously hurt at Everfree Forest. What creature would do this?"

"I'm sure no critter I know of would do such a thing unprovoked. I know Spike wouldn't do anything bad to them either…" Fluttershy said.

Applejack rolled her eyes and said: "Yeah, right. Tell that to Timber Wolves. They would attack you just for passing by near them."

Twilight had to interrupt her friends debate by saying: "I'm sure It's not something from the forest itself. I mean, it had huge black tentacles. I'm fairly sure I have never seen or read something like it before."

"If it had tentacles, did you see the main body? I mean, what it looked like?" rainbow sash asked.

The lavender unicorn sighed and replied: "No…When I saw Spike, I focused on bringing him here as soon as possible. I couldn't give this creature a chase…" then turning to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, twilight added: "I think you should stay away from the Everfree Forest for the time being, fillies. It's too dangerous to go play there or even visit Zecora."

The three fillies looked at each other worried, but then they remembered what that strange stallion had told them earlier.

"Hey, I think I what what this things is! I mean, I know somepony who knows what attacked Spike?"

"What are you talking about, Apple Bloom? " Her sister asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well, you see, when we were going home after buying the things you and Big Mac wanted, we saw a weird stallion yelling at the trees…" Apple Bloom started.

"Yelling at the trees? Looks like someone escaped the sanatorium." Rainbow Dash said chuckling at her own comment.

But Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, like the others, and continued: "After that he passed out of hunger and we too him to Apple Bloom's house. Then we started to talk to him and he told us he came ehre to hunt a 'thing'. He never said what it was, thou. But he said it was dangerous."

"So, it's some kind of monster that lives on trees?" Rarity asked trying to check how weird that sounded. But again, she lived in a town were demigods popped up causing mayhem quite often.

Twilight mused at that for a while. It did sound like whatever this colt the fillies encountered was after the same thing that hurt Spike. But she had to make sure of it first. "How does he look like? And what's his name?"

Scootaloo then said: "He said his name is Cielo Gris. He has black mane and grey fur…We couldn't see his cutie mark because he wore a cloak…But his horn was cut in half."

"Somepony cut his horn off?" Fluttershy said cringing at her own words. It sounded like something very painful.

"We don't know. But my guess is that this 'thing' was responsible for it." Apple Bloom said shrugging.

"So, are always going to call this thing a 'thing' from now on?" rainbow dash asked. It was simply too weird for her.

"I guess. I mean. Until we know what we are dealing with, at least." Rarity added.

Twilight then approached the fillies and lowered her head and asked: "Do you know where this Cielo Gris is? I would like to talk to him."

Sweetie Belle then said: "Well, we tried to talk to him about letting you help him to hunt it, but as soon as we mentioned that you were the Elements of Harmony he got a bit nervous and stormed off the house. He even used magic on Apple Bloom's brother for him to not stop him from fleeing."

"Ain't that suspicious?" Applejack said not liking one bit that a shady character were in her house and possibly brining danger to her family.

Twilight mused about it for a minute. She was almost sure that this Cielo guy was after the same thing that hurt her friend. By what the girls had told them, thi creature likes to stay on trees, so that would be a good place to start looking. But then her expression became annoyed given the fact that Ponyville was pretty much surrounded by trees.

"I guess, we should look for this Cielo. Maybe he can point us what this creature is and how can we fight it before it hurts somepony else." Twilight said.

Applejack then asked the lavender unicorn: "Don't you think you should be here, sugarcube? We can drop the fillies at their homes and then try to look for this stallion."

"Maybe, some critter in the forest had seen him. I can go check with them." Fluttershy suggested.

"And I'll sky patrol. A cloaked pony walking around isn't exactly hard to miss." Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight smiled a little and said: "Thanks, girls, but I'll help too. The doctors are still treating Spike and I doubt they would let me see him now…I need to focus on something at the moment. And if we all search, our chances of finding him will increase."

All mares nodded and agreed with her. Soon they left the hospital to try search for Cielo. Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie walked together asking pretty much every pony they saw if they had seen a pony that fit with the description Cutie Mark Crusaders gave them.

Meanwhile, Applejack made sure to get her sister, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo safe at their homes before joining Twilight and the other. Rainbow Dash scouted the skies as Fluttershy tried to see if any animals had seen Cielo.

Hours passed by as they searched. Some ponies did see a cloaked stallion running around earlier, but they had no idea where he was heading specifically. Not even the animals could help Fluttershy.

"Well, it seems that our search wasn't very fruitful" Rarity commented as the six mares walked back to the hospital.

Pinkie sighed as she said trying to cheer the others: "Well, I hope at least they let us see Spike now. Maybe he woke up."

Twilight raised her head at the comment. She had been feeling down because she got nowhere closer to solve the mystery. But if Spike got better, then maybe she could sleep a bit easier that night.

When they got to the hospital, Twilight went straight to find the doctor who treated Spike. Thankfully he did have some good news for her.

"Well, Miss Sparkle, your friend had his four limbs broken, we had to perform surgery to tend them, but I believe they'll recover if he rests. We've placed them into casts to prevent any further damage. We have to change the casts after some time to change the bandages, but it's nothing complicated." The doctor, who had yellow fur and brown mane, started.

The Elements of Harmony sighed collectively in relief, but before they could ask if Spike had woken up, the doctor continued: "As for his head, he had a minor concussion. He'll recover, but he has yet to wake up. I think a couple of days of rest will suffice for him to wake up."

This was a mix of good news and bad ones. Twilight wanted to talk with her little brother and apologize for making him go to the Everfree Forest, but at least he was out of danger. "Can we see him?" she asked with expectant eyes.

The doctor smiled softly and said: "Yes, you may. I'll take you to his room."

Then the six ponies followed the doctor to the third floor of the hospital and they saw he purple dragon sleeping on the bed. He had some bandages around his head and four white casts around his limbs. He also had an intravenous tube into his right cast. The tube was connected to a plastic bag contained a clear liquid which had some nutrients for patients who have no condition to eat on their own.

As they rushed to his side, the doctor said: "I'll leave you alone for now. But remember to not do anything to disturb his rest and call us if anything happens." After that the stallion left.

Pinkie Pie didn't waste time and started to place a few 'Get well' balloons tied on a chair next to the bed. The others thought of asking where did she got the balloons from, but they knew better than question Pinkie's antics.

"Man, whatever that thing was, it must have one heck of a strength. Aren't Spike's scales strong?" Rainbow Dash commented cringing a little bit.

"Yes…Poor Spikey-wikey…I can't wait to put my hooves on the creature that did this to him." Rarity said angrily.

The others shared Rarity's feelings. They couldn't believe that something would do such a thing to a child. _'Whatever it was, it must be intelligent. It pretty much tortured Spike for Celestia knows the reason…I need to stop it before it makes another victim.' _Twilight thought.

"Well, I'm going to prepare some sapphire cupcakes for him once he wakes up. Nobody deserves hospital food." Pinkie Pie said stretching her tongue to emphasize her point.

It drew a few giggles out of her friends. She couldn't bear to see them sad. It also hurt her to see Spike in such a state, but she was sure he would recover soon and she would help him feel better or her name wasn't Pinkie Pie.

Applejack then looked through window at the room and noticed that the Sun had already set: "It is getting a bit late, I need to go home and check on Apple Bloom. Will you be okay, Twilight?"

The lavender unicorn moved her gaze from her assistant and replied: "Yes. You girls, can go home. I'll stay here with him. If anything happens I'll call you."

They said their byes, but before they left, Twilight said: "I think it'll be better if you avoid going near trees. I know it sounds strange, but it's better to avoid this creature as much as we can."

Then they agreed with Twilight and wished her a good night.

The unicorn was now alone in the room watching her little brother sleep. His little chest rose and fell. She couldn't help, but to feel guilty for his current situation. She hoped he would forgive her for not following his advice earlier.

She just stood there watching him for about an hour when her stomach growled. She hadn't had anything to eat since lunch.

Twilight then got near Spike and gently kissed his forehead. "I won't take long." She told him before going to get something for her to eat. When she left the room, she turned off the lights and closed the door behind her

The room was dark and quiet. A few minutes later, a black shadow then emerged and slowly entered through the half open window. The shadow then turned into a big mist and positioned itself next to Spike's bed.

One tentacles came out of the black mist. The creature considered immobilizing the baby dragon, but decided it was unnecessary, given the fact that Spike's arms and legs were in a cast, thus he couldn't move even if he were conscious.

The tentacle slithered into his mouth, gagging him. The unconscious drake made a few sounds and twitched as a couple of smaller tentacles shoved themselves inside of Spike's nostrils, completely shutting off his hair. The dragon squirmed and tried to breath, but it was futile.

The entity, wanted to kill him as fast as possible without making too much noise or mess to not attract unwanted attention. It tried to have fun before, but since Spike was unconscious, torture him was meaningless, so he decided to finish the job quickly and move to his next victims.

It considered killing Spike without leaving traces and then hide inside of the room to attack Twilight while she cried over the corpse wondering why Spike died so 'suddenly'.

'_One by one. They'll all perish…_' it mused in its own mind.

The baby dragon's body moved desperately trying to breath air without any success. Spike made some noises, but even in his current situation he couldn't wake up.

Spike's struggles were slowly ceasing because of the lack of the oxygen

If it had a mouth, it would be grinning widely as the dragon slowly died. However its pleasure was interrupted when it heard a yell.

"LET HIM GO!" Twilight yelled as rays of purple magic cut through the tentacles.

What was detached from those 'limbs' simply became pure smoke. Spike coughed and inhaled really hard at the same time.

Twilight's eyes were full of anger at the sight of this beingtrying to murder her friend again. Her horn glowed a very bright purple color and was ready to attack the entity again, but it fled through the window as fast as it could.

End of chapter 5

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><p>I hope you enjoyed. Please review.<p> 


	6. Underneath

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own My Little Pony

* * *

><p>Twilight didn't get any sleep that night. She stood guard by Spike's bed with a protective bubble around it. A few nurses and doctors went to the dragon's room to see what was the source of the noise.<p>

The lavender unicorn had to explain to them about what had happened. They were worried that a monster had come to the hospital and almost killed one patient. A doctor then worried that more patients might be attacked and asked Twilight about what she could do to protect them.

The purple unicorn had initially thought to cast a protective shield over Spike's room, but after hearing the pleas of the medical staff, she couldn't ignore that other patients could be attacked as well. Besides, she felt it was her duty to make everypony feel safe there.

She had asked her brother, Shining Armor, about the shield spell he had cast over Canterlot after he came back from his honeymoon. The spell could be set to block just certain beings or every creature. Placing a filter, however is certainly more magic draining than set the spell to block every creature.

From the window of Spike's room, she cast the spell to form a bubble around the hospital. The pink energy coated the hospital and dome's length was just two inches from touching the building. She didn't want to tire herself to make a bigger shield because she was going to have to renew the energy every twelve hours or so and she had to go hunt for the thing that tried to kill Spike.

But she was going to have to wait until morning to do so. She doubted that this creature wanted to hurt anypony else but Spike, because, otherwise, it wouldn't go such length just to attack Spike.

She hoped her theory was correct and she quickly left the room to explain the doctors, nurses and other people in the hospital that the shield was supposed to ward against any non-pony or dragon creature that tried to break inside. This way, nopony would be prisoner inside of it and it wouldn't stop new patients from receiving the proper treatment.

Twilight had added Spike as an exception too because she wasn't sure how long she would have to search for this creature or if her assistant would get better quickly or not.

The purple mare decided that if Spike got well enough, she would take him home and protect him there. It would be much easier for her to do it there instead of a place where so many ponies could get hurt in a fight.

After she explained everything to the hospital staff, she returned to Spike's room. He was still asleep. It frightened her that if she had been a minute late, her friend would be dead. She also hated herself for even sending him to the Everfree Forest in first place.

'_This always happens…Spike tries to give me an advice, I don't listen to him and something bad happens. Why do I keep doing this?' _she thought as she closed her eyes and nuzzled her little brother's face in hopes it would wake him up.

But she knew why she didn't listen to him. It's because whenever she starts with an interesting experiment she can't stop doing it until she finishes it. There were a few times when Spike had to forcefully close the book and force Twilight to stretch her legs.

Twilight had no rest that night. She remained on guard the entire time. She remained in the room only moving at times to look at the window and see if the monster was lurking outside.

At 3 a.m., however, she saw something odd on the streets. It was a cloaked pony. This strange pony walked near the hospital and looked at the pink barrier. Then Twilight could see some grey light coming from inside of the hood and what seemed to be a glowing trail formed on the ground leading somewhere away from the hospital.

It was then when Twilight remembered what the fillies had told her earlier. About a stallion who was hunting down some kind of creature in their town. She thought this was her chance to talk to him and finally learn what she was dealing with.

She then shouted from the window: "You're Cielo Gris, right? I think we should talk.." but then she quickly placed a hoof on her mouth as she remembered that no only it was late at night, but it was a hospital and the ponies there needed their rest to recover.

However, once she yelled, the stallion quickly looked up, he saw Twilight looking at him. That made him panic and quickly started to run away from there. _'I should have known who was responsible for this barrier. I need to run fast._' He thought as he fled.

"Hey, wait!" She shouted again cringing for making a loud noise again. She then teleported to the ground and started to pursue the stallion. She ran as fast as she could in the middle of the night after the cloaked colt.

Not wanting to be caught, Cielo Gris used his magic to make some dust arise from the ground hoping it would be enough to ditch Twilight Sparkle. However, he didn't count on how powerful the Element of Magic really was.

Twilight's horn glowed as she quickly dispersed the dust cloud and, once she had a clear view, she teleported again a few feet in front of the cloaked stallion and used her magic to bind him.

"I'm really sorry for being rude, Mr. Cielo, but my friend has been attacked and I need all the help I can…" She started saying as she took his hood off revealing his face.

Twilight's jaw dropped as she stared at this so-called mysterious pony called Cielo Gris. The stallion lacked the horn and his eyes weren't consumed by dark magic, but she recognized that face anywhere.

"Sombra?" She shouted.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, at the Hospital, a nurse had gotten inside of the room to replace the I.V. fluids for Spike. She could swear that Twilight should be there, but she shrugged it off thinking that she probably had left home. Once she finished with her duty, she moved to the window and closed it. It wasn't a warm night and the cold wind could make the small dragon sick. After that left the room. After a few minutes, the baby dragon's breath was slowly increasing and he was starting to sweat.<p>

His face started to twist as he tried to move his body on the bed. He was soon panting loudly and the sheets were drenched in his sweat when he finally opened his eyes.

His irises were red and the white area was now a bright green with a purple mist coming out of his eyes. He looked around and said with a strange smile and muttered to himself with a raspy and strange voice: "This wasn't part of the plan, but I might use the cards I have."

With a chuckle 'Spike' sat on the bed and green and purple magic enveloped his casts, destroying them. He could feel that the limbs were still broken, but this only made his smile grow larger as he cast another magic around his limbs, making his scales have a much darker purple tone.

He then jumped from the bed and walked normally to the window. It was night time and he had to hurry before Twilight arrived. He opened the window and climbed it. It was fairly tall, but that didn't pose a problem to him.

However. His worry was about the barrier, whose boundaries were just outside of the window. He tried to touch it and for his surprise, his hand passed through. 'Spike' then cogitated that the barrier was supposed to prevent the mist from getting inside.

He thanked his good luck and jumped down the window. The landing impact made Spike's legs make a noise of damaging even further his bones, but he didn't care. The magic around his body allowed him to move as he please no matter how wounded the body was. After all he couldn't feel any pain, but Spike certainly could.

He then hurried and ran towards the Everfree Forest to meet with the rest of his body. He grinned as he run for finding such useful new host for him.

End of chapter 6

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><p>I hope you enjoyed. Please review.<p> 


	7. Origin of the Shadows

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own My Little Pony

3)Thanks Kerion and MarcelineFan for your reviews.

* * *

><p>"Sombra? What? Why?" Twilight asked to no pony in particular. She was simply shocked to see the former ruler of the Crystal Empire there.<p>

He too was nervous, but for different reasons. His fear, however, soon became real as soon as he noticed that the confused expression on the mare turned into a deep frown.

Her eyes narrowed as she used her magic once more to completely bind 'Sombra' and levitate him from the ground. She then concealed him into a floating magic bubble.

Twilight started saying with a furious expression: "So, this was all your doing? I should have known that the smoke that attacked Spike had something to do with you! If I had figured it out earlier…UGH!" she finished closing her eyes tightly, cursing herself for not realizing things sooner.

The trapped stallion simply breathed deeply trying to calm himself. '_This isn't going to be easy…For neither of us._' He thought right before he begin talking.

"First things first, Bearer of the Element of Magic, my name isn't Sombra. It's Cielo Gris…"

"Do you Think I would believe that? After all you did? You even got close to Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo! What did you intend to do wit them?" twilight interrupted raising a hoof at him in accusation.

Cielo sighed once again before continuing: "My name is Cielo Gris. I've been known as Sombra because I made a foolish mistake over a thousand years ago. I am and I'm not responsible for the things that happened in both Crystal Empire and here…"

Twilight put down her hoof with a loud stomp on the ground, not liking one bit his tone. "Are you trying to dodge your blame? How can you possibly not be at fault for enslaving an entire nation and hurt my little brother?"

The lavender unicorn was now breathing deeply trying to calm herself. She was face to face with a pony who she believed to be responsible for brutally torturing Spike and now that she knew that this Cielo Gris and Sombra were the same ponies, she realized that all her friends were in grave danger.

She wanted to **punish** him herself. But she knew better than to give into her anger. Her thoughts were once again directed at the stallion as he spoke.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to be cryptic…It's just that it's complicated even for me. I guess I should start from the beginning, right?"

Twilight said nothing in reply, she just stared at him firmly.

Seeing her silence as permission to speak, Cielo begun: "I was born in Canterlot and since I was young I displayed a great affinity with magic. By the age of ten, I managed to perform spells that only adults could. My talents somehow were heard by the princess Celestia herself. She decided to make me her personal student..."

"Wait, wait, wait! YOU were Princess Celestia's student? I find it hard to believe." She said rolling her eyes. "You have to improve your story a little bit."

"Where did you think I learned dark magic?" he replied coldly raising an eyebrow. "There were books in her library. I sneaked there back in my day to study them. She wouldn't let me saying that they were dangerous."

The lavender unicorn rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically: "Dark magic dangerous? Who would have guessed…" but Twilight immediately regretted even mocking him as soon as the words left her mouth. She remembered that she used the same kind of magic when they visited the Crystal Empire to defeat Sombra.

Dark magic felt…wrong for her. It was like she was being hollowed of every single emotion as she used it. She however pressed on using it because she thought it was necessary to pass the test Celestia gave her.

She still felt embarrassed for thinking that she should do everything alone. If it weren't for her friends, Sombra would have won.

She secretly vowed to never use dark magic again. Not only it was risky, she also didn't want to end up corrupted by it.

But again, she also couldn't help but to notice that 'Sombra' had raised an interesting point: How did he know Celestia could do dark magic? _'Maybe what he says is true… But ,on the other hoof, the best way to create a lie is to add some truth in it…'_

Cielo blinked a few times staring at Twilight having an inner monologue, but he then decided to continue: "*Cough* I've secretly trained how to use dark magic and after some years I thought I had mastered all the spells from the books. I must admit, they greatly interested me. Illusions, mind control, bending space itself, among other things."

He stopped briefly as he gave a loud sigh. "These were my first big mistakes. To think I have mastered that form of magic and not to ask the Princess for advice…She must hate me now."

Cielo Gris looked to the night sky through the bubble then back to Twilight, who was still listening to him, and asked: "Did she say anything about me, when she ordered you elements to come to defeat me?"

Twilight was a bit surprised by this sudden question, but she quickly shook her head and replied: "She only referred to you as 'Sombra' and she wanted me…I mean, us to find a way to free the Crystal Empire from you. Even after we came back, she congratulated us and she seemed relieved, I think."

Cielo closed his eyes and replied: "I Can't blame her. She thought I became a monster…"

"You were a monster! You enslaved an entire Empire!" Twilight shouted.

The stallion growled at her and said: "I didn't do those things on purpose! I wasn't even in control of my own body!"

"So, did the dark magic possess you?" She asked getting quite intrigued by it. _'If his story is indeed true, then this is more reason for me to not dare use it anymore._' She added in her mind.

Cielo shook his head and replied: "Dark magic can't possess anypony. All it does is to instigate one to make bad choices. Dark Magic has as much influence on somepony as cheerleaders in a hoofball game. It inspires you, but ultimately it's your choice and yours only."

Twilight blinked a few times, surprised: "Oh! Then what happened?"

"Well, Princess Celestia sent me to the Crystal Empire one day for mere diplomatic reasons. She wanted to establish some commercial routes with them. But after a couple of days there, I started to hear some cases of ponies being slaughtered on the Crystal Empire. They were killed in many different gruesome ways. You saw what happened to your friend, right? So you have an idea of what is capable of."

Twilight then scowled again at the mention of Spike. It made her raise her guard again. '_The last thing I need is to be sneak attacked._' She then glanced at the unicorn's broken horn and finished her trail of thought '_Somehow'_.

Cielo Gris just continued: "Anyway, I decided to take upon myself to check what was going on and arrest the perpetrator. I..was sure that I powerful and talented enough to do everything by myself and ignored the late Crystal Princess' offer of having some soldiers to aid me. Receive help from others felt almost…insulting to me."

Twilight couldn't help, but to cringe a little. She could relate with it a little.

"I've spent many days and nights searching, lurking around until, one day, I met…it." His face was filled with disgust as he remembered "Its name is Ombra, Schatten, Σκιά, but from his original language, it was Umbra. All of those words mean one thing: Shadow. And that's what the creature is."

"I guess the name is fitting…" it was all she could say.

"I tried to fight it with every spell I knew. I think I hurt it a little, but nothing seemed to kill or knock it out. I then started resorting to dark magic to enhance my own power. But the moment I fired a magic beam at it, Umbra grew. It fed on my magic. At the time, I was confused by it, but now I now that as a being created and molded in dark magic. But I tried to keep pressing it in order to prove my own worth. I saw it as the biggest challenge of my life. But after an hour of battle, I started to fear it. It was then that I made my stupidest mistake."

After a brief pause he said: "I tried to use dark magic to seal it inside of my own body."

Twilight's jaw fell. Many things rushed through her mind. "Is that even possible? To seal another creature inside of oneself, that is?"

The stallion nodded and continued: "Yes. The spell created some kind of pocket dimension inside of the caster sealing the being away and the caster's body become its prison and lifeline. If the host dies, the creature dies. What I didn't expect, but I should have, was that the barrier separating me from the creature was formed by dark magic. So it was only natural that the monster ate the barrier and crept into my body and mind. It simply took over me."

His breathing intensified as he recorded the feeling of having his body robbed from him. "It then adapted its name to my first language, thus becoming the one you knew as Sombra. It liked that I had such affinity with dark magic. He used my power to add to its own and caused terror by killing the former crystal princess and assuming the throne as their king. When the princesses heard who was doing all that, they tried to intervene. The creature made sure to make them believe it was me and that I would rule over all ponies in their place. But it didn't expect the Elements of Harmony. Princesses Celestia and Luna tried to use them to defeat me, but before they could purge it from me, Umbra kidnapped the entire empire. You already know the rest of the story."

Twilight wasn't sure how she should take this information. On one side, she was familiar that there were beings that possessed others. It happened with Luna and Rarity, plus her gut feeling was saying that he wasn't lying either. However, she didn't want to risk, especially when the lives of those she cared about were at stake.

She gave a deep sigh and said: "Alright. I'll believe in what you said, for now. But I have a few questions. That thing is a shadow, but has a conscience on its own. Do you know what is it exactly?" Twilight inquired.

Cielo nodded and then replied: "I know…From what I could grasp from its memories, it's a byproduct of an attempt to create immortality. You see, about a hundred years before I came to the Crystal Empire, there was a unicorn called Shooting Meteor. He was the warden of a high security prison there. He had to control several psychopaths, murderers, robbers, drug dealers and other criminals. The thing was that he was on the same level as them. He liked to torture them and even keep them longer than what theirs sentences ordered…"

"So, what happened?" Twilight asked, wondering why he stopped explaining.

"He killed them all." The cold said simply with his eyes closed. "I…have the memories of both the warden and the criminals. Shooting Meteor bribed the guards to take several prisoners to an underground laboratory, which was under the prison, to experiment on them. He used dark magic to drain life from them. Their lives were little green balls of energy that came out of the bodies and were stored in a single glass jar. The spheres merged with one another growing in power, but not in size, for some reason. The warden thought that once he was immortal he wouldn't have to fear anypony, not even Celestia and Luna themselves. But after he killed over a hundred prisoners, one of the guards decided to denounce the warden, hoping to be spared of the punishment."

"Shooting Meteor, when he heard that he was about to be arrested, teleported to his lab to use the energy he harvested so far. He got the green energy ball and pressed it against his own heart. His research came to the conclusion it would give him the life spam and power of all ponies he had killed. But the result of the dark magic was another. He…exploded."

The lavender unicorn blinked a few times in disbelief. "Exploded?"

"Yes. The energy was filled with rage, desire to hurt and, with the addition of Shooting Meteor's life, the urge to rule over others. When the royal guard managed to get to the laboratory, they could only see blood stained metal beds were the prisoners were held, alongside with tools and now with the remains of the former warden. In front of them there was the shadow you've seen before. A creature that wasn't the warden nor the prisoners. An entire new entity molded with the feelings and memories of the ones used to create it. Umbra, then killed the guards and all prisoners. Nopony ever knew what really happened in that prison. When I first came to the Crystal Empire, and heard of the happening, I thought that it was done by a riot, which was the popular theory since nopony could come up with anything better."

After he finished explaining, there was a brief silence between them. She still couldn't detect any lie in his words and she started to curse herself in her head for what she was about to do: "Alright. I think I'll believe in you for now!" she then dispelled the magic bubble concealing the stallion and continued "So, what's the plan?"

Cielo was quite surprised that she was keen to help him. "I think you should get the other Elements of Harmony as soon as possible. It's the only thing I know of that Umbra is scared of."

Twilight nodded and replied: "I'll call the girls as soon as possible. Thankfully, Princess Celestia let me have the Elements for me to study the magic from a book written by Starswirl the Bearded But how will we find it?"

"I've been merged with it for a thousand years. I still share a faint connection with it that allows me to track it down. That's why I came here in first place. I wish I hadn't lost most of my horn when we were separated back then. But I can still cast some spells. I'll try track it while you go get the other Elements."

Twilight then gave him an angry glare and said: "And what? What will you do if you find it before we get all Elements of Harmony? Try seal it again? Challenge it to a hoof fight? You said so yourself you can't use magic very well. How do you expect to defend yourself?"

Cielo was taken by surprise and gave a few steps back: "I-I…can fight it! I can fix my own mistakes. I can hold it off until you get everypony."

Twilight frowned and quickly trotted to him making her face be just a few inches apart from his: "Believe me, Cielo, I know how it's to prove yourself at all costs, but the stakes are too high for me to take random chances. Tell me, if you engage in combat with this Umbra, how are we supposed to know where you are? Going to use magic to signal it on the sky? With your limited magic, that will make you vulnerable for an attack!"

Cielo opened his mouth only to close it again. He knew she was right. He was even ready to die to bring it down with him in order to redeem himself. But good would his efforts do? Umbra would need like three minutes to kill him. He needed the Elements to destroy it.

"Alright…Lead the way…" He conceded.

Twilight then decided to make the stallion walk in front of her, on their way to the library, where the elements were, to prevent any surprise attack.

Again, he couldn't blame her for being suspicious. But then something came across his mind that disturbed him a little, but he kept quiet. '_Wait…Umbra knows I can track it and it knows I'm weaker than it…Why didn't Umbra try kill me before?'_

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><p>'Spike' simply smiled as he now peacefully walked into the Everfree Forest. He knew he wasn't being pursued by anypony. He walked until he reached a clearing, where a black mist awaited for him.<p>

'Spike's' now glowing green eyes showed a hint of happiness as he merely opened his mouth. The black mist then quickly flew into the maw so fast, it seemed like the drake was sucking it like a vacuum.

Once all mist was inside of the baby dragon, pike held his stomach in some discomfort. '_I need to keep myself disconnect from this body. I don't intend to be here for long, anyway'_. It thought

Then his body started to change. The green spines on his back started to turn red and the sound of bones clicking and cracking echoed through the forest.

Spike's body started to grow.

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><p>End of chapter 7<p>

I hope you enjoyed. Please review.


	8. Dark Revelation

Author notes:

1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.

2)I don't own My Little Pony.

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><p>Twilight managed to gather the Elements of Harmony at her home and gave each one of her friends once she found them. She also had explained Cielo Gris's plan to track down Sombra. There was some initial resistance, since they wanted to know exactly who this stallion was. Twilight promised to tell them later, which made them agree.<p>

Cielo was particularly surprised to discover that the Elements of Harmony were jewelry. He honestly expected them to be weapons or something like it. But if they were able to do the job, then he didn't care how they were shaped.

After that, the stallion used his magic to track down Umbra/Sombra's tracks. He followed the tracks to the Everfree Forest and after a few minutes they've found him. Or to be more precise, Umbra found them.

To say that they were shocked would be an understatement. Umbra was possessing Spike's body and he was pretty much in his adult form just like when he had rampaged on his last birthday. However the color scheme was different. Spike's spines were red and his scales were of a very dark shade of purple. His eyes were also bright red, the white area was bright green and there was a purple mist coming out of them.

"H-How?" It was all Twilight could utter before Sombra unleashed a torrent of green flames towards them.

Applejack bit Twilitght's tail and quickly took her out of there. Rainbow Dash did practically the same for Fluttershy. Thankfully nopony got hurt, but the trees were burning. However, they didn't have time to worry about that.

Sombra then tried to use his fire breath again, but this time Twilight managed to use her magic to shield them from the fire.

"Spike? What in tarnation is going on?" Applejack asked him.

"He's being possessed by Umbra!" Cielo explained it to them.

"How? I thought Twilight was protecting the hospital with her magic." Fluttershy asked.

However, it was Umbra who replied: "Allow me, to give you the short version of the answer. I possessed the whelp last time I attacked him at the hospital. He ended up swallowing part of me while I tried to kill him and was interrupted by her." He said pointing his finger to Twilight. "This was not part of my plans, but I might as well use him while I find a better vessel. But I must say, a dragon's body, while not as magic attuned as a unicorn's, it's quite useful."

"Don't you dare say such a thing about our dear friend. He's not a object!" Rarity scolded him.

Pinkie Pie then added with a frown: "Yeah! Give him back, you big meanie!"

"Enough talk! Let's teach this freak a lesson!" Rainbow Dash said clapping her fore hooves together to emphasize her point. But then Fluttershy interrupted her.

"But, Dashie, we can't hurt Spike…"

Umbra made Spike grin menacingly as he said: "This is one more reason why this body is useful."

He then quickly launched himself against them only to be trapped by what it seemed to be a purple set of handcuffs, one for the hands and other one for the legs. He collapsed on the ground and he was very confused at first, but then he saw a very pissed off Twilight. He tried to break free from the magic, but it was useless. His magic inside of the dragon's body wasn't that great and his physical strength was reduced give the…state of the dragon's body.

"You dare hurt my friend and now you use him against his will? You are a **monster**! Girls let's use the Elements and free Spike at once!' Twilight said with a snarl trying to hold back her tears. She didn't want to treat her body's friend roughly, but there was no other option.

Cielo looked at Umbra as the Elements gathered the energy to finally defeat him. However, he was scared. He didn't understand why that was happening. Umbra was about to destroyed.

'_Then why is he smiling?'_ The stallion thought alarmed as something at the back of his mind told him to stop the mares.

"Don't use that power on him! It's a trap!" He shouted as he trotted to stand between them and the possessed dragon.

The girls were confused at first, but then Twilight shouted: "How can this be a trap? The Elements of Harmony will free Spike and take care of Sombra. Get ready, girls!"

But then Cielo shouted once more: "No! there is something wrong. He would never give up so easily and allow himself to be shot. I know him all too well."

Umbra made Spike chuckle and with a thunderous voice he said: 'It's true that I wouldn't allow myself to be destroyed or locked away forever. But what can I do? I've been defeated."

That line made the mares resolve to falter. They could now see that he was truly up to something. "I think Cielo maybe be right, Twilight. What do we do?"

"We can't risk Spikey-Wikey wellbeing. But if we don't use the Elements now, he might get away." Rarity said concerned.

"What are you up to?" Twilight demanded gritting her teeth.

Umbra/Sombra stopped for a while. He wondered what would be the best course of action. He knew he couldn't win, but he at least was going to make sure they would lose as well. He curled Spike's lips into a menacing grin and decided to tell them his venomous plan.

"Allow me to ask you something first: how do the Elements of Harmony work?"

The others were confused at such question. Rainbow Dash was the first to say: "They can defeat any bad guy! That's all you need to know."

Sombra chuckled once again and replied: "I've heard stories before and analyzing this whelp's memories, my theory was confirmed. Allow me to show you. Don't worry. I won't do anything…drastic."

Sombra used his claws to pick up a small rock with his claws and showed it to them. He then used some of the little magic he had left to turn the pebble into a sapphire. "Imagine this pebble is your dear Spike and the sapphire is me. When the elements purge me of him, he would go back to normal."

Then he made the stone go back to normal. The others looked at that awfully confused, but letting their guards down. Knowing he had their attention, he continued.

"Now, this is what I did to poor old Spike's body." He then crushed the pebble into dust and then used his magic to gather all parts of it and mold it to a single sapphire again. "I've managed his body by a lot and it's my magic that is gluing the pieces together. But the moment you zap me with the Elements…"

Then he released the magic, the sapphire was gone and it returned to be a shattered pebble. "As you can see…the magic of Harmony only undo the effects of magic, not physical damage. And, boy, I did a number in his body the moment I possessed him."

"YOU ARE LYING!" Twilight shouted so loud, it would give Princess Luna a run for her money.

The others were startled by her reaction, but they understood her reaction. "Why…Why would you do something like this?" Fluttershy asked not wanting to use her element on him if it meant Spike would die.

"No! He's lying! The elements can fix Spike. They are powerful enough to heal him!" Rainbow Dash tried to reason.

Her friends were almost agreeing with her when they heard Sombra laughing.

"Oh, really?" he said with a grin. "If the Elements are so powerful, if they are capable of healing physical damages, curing diseases and so on, then why don't you use them to heal everypony in the hospitals? Why haven't Princess Celestia told you that your precious deus ex machina can do such a thing, then? Is she cruel to the point of letting many ponies get hurt and die or is it because your objects aren't as good as you think they are. If it's the former, then I would like to shake her hoof."

Cielo just looked alarmed as he tried to think of a way out of this situation. In truth, he wasn't the only one doing that.

"We have to try!" Pinkie said with a worried expression. "The Elements have never failed us before."

Twilight closed her eyes and thought so hard about her options, she started to sweat. When she opened then she said with a resolve: "We'll use the Elements. As Pinkie said, they had never failed us. They are the ultimate force of good. We just have to focus on healing Spike. I'm sure…It'll work!"

Twilight clung to her words desperate to believe them. There was a chance that Umbra was lying to save himself, but his explanation did make some sense. This plagued her mind. If she allowed Sombra to use Spike's body for longer, there was the chance he would be lost forever. They couldn't exactly chain a full grown dragon who could use dark magic. And they also didn't have access to the magic they had used to separate Cielo from Sombra since they didn't have the Crystal Heart.

"Come on, girls. Focus on saving Spike!" Twilight told the others, who nodded in agreement.

"He'll die!" Sombra said with a snarl. As much as he hoped to see their sorrowful faces, he didn't want to disappear forever.

Twilight closed her eyes and focused solely on healing Spike. She was certain that even if Sombra were simply separated from him, she would track him and defeat him. Spike's safety came first. After focusing, the six bearers released the rainbow towards Umbra…

The rainbow enveloped the huge dragon, making him scream in agony. They all kept focusing as the rainbow spiraled around Spike's body, almost like a cocoon.

'_Please be okay, Spike…'_ Twilight thought holding her breath.

Once the rainbow finally disappeared, Spike was back to his original size. The girls rushed to him to check on him. Once they got near, they could see Spike siting up on the dirt groaning and holding his head with his right claw.

"Twilight? You saved me!" he said.

The purple unicorn then hugged him really tight. She could hear her friends saying "It's a beautiful miracle…"

Twilight then proceeded to open her eyes revealing the rainbow around Spike disappearing. Once the rainbow disappeared she saw Spike lying on the dirt, but he wasn't moving like in her mental image.

She rushed to him and saw his body full of hematomas under the scales and some blood leaking from his mouth and nostrils. She screamed for his name as she wrapped him in her hooves. The others could merely look at the scene horrified.

Spike just stood there. Motionless…Lifeless…

End of chapter 8

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><p>I admit that this fake out was inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Well, folks, next chapter shall be the epilogue of this story.. I hope you enjoyed. Please review.<p> 


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